Cities in Dust
by Misya
Summary: OLD: TFA. Bits and pieces, written for a music prompt. Spoilers for A Bridge Too Close.


FOREWARD: After reading daftpyratelolz./27031.html, I figured I'd do one of those writing exercises where you put your MP3s on shuffle and write 10 different things for the first 10 songs you hear, as it looked like fun. Except... I cheated at it, because I'm scum. You're only meant to write for the duration of each song, so I made liberal use of the 'pause' button. :( Also, my MP3 player was hellbent on giving me angsty songs, when I'm really more accustomed to writing fluff. Do the drabbles fit the tracks? Hell if I know.

* * *

**1. Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is.  
**

Blackarachnia clawed her way out of the tunnels, and squinted at the sun as if for the first time. She took a deep breath. Even respiration felt different. Everything felt fuzzy and muted, as her CPU was still attempting to make new connections to alien cells.

_Well,_ she thought to herself._ The worst has happened, and I'm still alive._

She sat down heavily on the ground, and closed her eyes.

Hours passed. She felt nothing. It was as if her mind was unable to fully process things.

Then, eventually... The enormity of it hit her. As if out of nowhere. Blackarachnia looked down at herself, and started laughing so hard that she thought she was going to explode.

In retrospect, this probably wasn't the _best _response to her situation.

* * *

**2. Noriko Sakai - Active Heart (Gunbuster opening theme)**

Prowl found Bumblebee and Sari hanging-upside down from some railings. It seemed like they had been like that for a while, as the human child was red-faced from the rush of blood to her head.

"...What... What are you doing?"

Bumblebee looked smug. "We figured that that if we do this for a few megacycles each day, the pull of Earth's gravity will make us taller."

"I don't think that's possible," Prowl said, slowly.

Sari gave him a defiant look. "Anything is possible with hard work and guts!"

Prowl decided not to argue with that.

* * *

**3. Nina Simone - The Other Woman**

Lugnut caught Blackarachnia singing, once. Ever so quietly, like a gentle murmur. The ship was empty save for the two of them, and she didn't seem to mind the fact that he heard her.

"Why are you making that noise?" he asked.

"It's an Autobot funeral song," she told him, distractedly.

Lugnut's single optic flickered, betraying an earnest sort of curiosity. "Who's it for?"

Blackarachnia gave him an insincere smile. "Just some femme I used to know."

* * *

**4. Nina Simone - Ne Me Quitte Pas**

Ratchet was in the Ark under the pretence of doing routine maintenance. In truth, he actually needed a break from work, and he inevitably found himself heading to the bridge. It was unusual to be alone in the vessel. Normally, there was very little privacy on a ship, but the Ark had been a very quiet place ever since they had moved to base in the middle of Detroit.

Ratchet glanced back over his shoulder, then awkwardly gave the nearest control panel a small pat. "Hey."

Of course, there was no reply.

Ratchet decided to speak for the sake of speaking. It was better than listening to the deafening silence. "I thought I'd come talk a while. Sorry I haven't been 'round much. Things have been busy. Er. I've been reading up on human physiology. Primus knows why - it's not like I don't have plenty of other slag to be doing already. Anyway."

He frowned, and pursed his lips. This was more difficult than he'd anticipated. He persevered, all the same.

"...Anyway. Sometimes, humans go in to a state of deep unconsciousness as a result of trauma. They call it a 'coma'. Means 'sleep' in one of their languages. So... The friends and relatives of a human in a coma are encouraged to speak to them. Like they can hear them, you know. They think it does them good. I thought that was nice, 'cause I've always felt kind of crazy talking to you like this. I know you can't hear me. It's a technical fact. Your core CPU is completely offline. Still... you're as complicated as you are ugly - and believe me, buddy, you're _extremely_ ugly. You might have a few surprises in you, yet. I don't know."

Oh, great. Now he was going all maudlin. Ratchet glanced down, and brushed a speck of soot off a monitor screen. There was still no reply... Not that he had really expected one.

He smiled. "Even if you are totally offline, I guess that's a good thing. You've earned yourself a rest. Heh. I should be happy that you've finally found some peace."

* * *

**5. Siouxie and the Banshees - Cities in Dust**

Megatron hit the mech in the face with the barrel of his cannon, knocking him to the floor, then put his foot on the mech's back. There was a metallic crunch as armor buckled under Megatron's weight.

"I want you to humor me," Megatron said. "Tell me: why did you try to desert?"

The mech's voice was strained and full of static. Still, one thing was clear: he was laughing. "Because you're slagged, Megatron. We're slagged. Our time is over. Look at us; we're reduced to hiding from Autobot patrols, sneaking around the boundaries of Cybertron like cowards. We're too weak to fight the Autobots head-on, like proper Decepticons should. I don't care if you kill me. Nothing is worse than this shameful existence. You're old and stupid, Megatron. You're a joke. You're going to execute me for speaking the truth, while Starscream remains alive despite actively trying to overthrow you."

Megatron's expression was thoughtful. "I keep Starscream alive because he's still useful to me. You, however, are expendable." He smiled. "And I'm not going to kill you. I'm just going to make you _wish _I did."

* * *

**6. The Pirates of Penzance - I am the very model of a modern major general.**

Jazz stood before Ultra Magnus' desk, looking awkward.

Ultra Magnus gave him a level look. "I'm going to speak candidly. The details of this conversation will never leave this room, is that clear?"

Jazz nodded.

"I know what you're going to ask me," Ultra Magnus said, with a small sigh. "It's about Sentinel, isn't it? You're going to ask me, 'what the frag is he doing here?' Of course, you won't quite say it like that. You'll be far more diplomatic. You'll beat around the bush, trying to find a polite way to phrase that eternal question; 'sir, why is my commanding officer such a dipstick?' Believe me, I get asked that question about Sentinel a _lot_."

Jazz just... considered this carefully, then shrugged. "Something like that. Sir." He still looked slightly surprised by Ultra Magnus' words.

Ultra Magnus reached for a datapad, and searched through it until he found the file he was looking for. He then handed the pad over to Jazz. "This is Sentinel's personnel file. If you scroll down to the bottom, you'll find his scores on the Elite Guard aptitude tests."

Jazz glanced over the scores, and swore under his breath. Ultra Magnus saw the shock on the other 'bot's face, and smiled tiredly.

"I know," he replied. "Sentinel is the smartest moron I've ever met."

* * *

**7. Ootsuki Kenji - Hito Toshite Jiku ga Bureteiru**

Blackarachnia had a LOT of things to say about Blitzwing. Few of them were complimentary. To be completely fair to him, though... She never saw him get self-conscious or mopey about his, um, _personality defect_. Blitzwing wouldn't have know the meaning of 'angst' if you beat him to death with a dictionary. She wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, but... it was sort of inspiring.

Which is why, when he shanghaied her in to dancing with him, she went along with it. Well frag it, why not? There wasn't anyone watching.

She did a pretty convincing job of appearing not to enjoy it, too. "If you tell anyone about this," she snarled at him. "I'm going to tear your wings off and beat you offline with them. I'll kick you so hard in the crankshaft that your progenitors will feel it. I'll..."

Blitzwing didn't appear to hear her, and spun her around in a pirouette.

Damn, sometimes it was really difficult to be a brooding anti-heroine.

* * *

**8. Rogue Traders - Voodoo Child**

Starscream headed towards the USAF base, making ABSOLUTELY SURE that he was being observed.

Barely a few minutes later, a group of F-22s were scrambled to intercept him. The ensuing dogfight was over in a space of a few seconds.

Then, once Starscream was quite confident that he had the attention of everyone in the area, he did a series of Kulbit somersaults, flew so low over the control tower that the glass in the windows rattled and the human occupants all dived for the floor, barnstormed his way through an open hangar, blew up a nearby fuel truck for the sheer hell of it, and startled one of the Second Lieutenants so much that the officer spilled his coffee down his uniform.

Starscream then sped off at an impossible speed, cackling to himself.

On the ground, an awe-struck Airman looked up at the sky. "Who was that pilot?" he murmured.

"I don't know," replied the Second Lieutenant, wiping hot coffee off his hands. "But he sure was a fuckin' dick."

* * *

**9. Muse - Glorious**

Megatron tried to focus on the computer terminal in front of him, but he just couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. Someone was staring at him.

It was Lugnut. Lugnut was good at staring. Lugnut did a _lot_ of staring at Megatron. Lugnut had five optics to stare with. This made him two and a half times better at staring than Blitzwing was.

"Lugnut, do I have something on my helm?"

"No, mighty Megatron, sir. Your helm is perfect, pristine, and unsullied by the filth of this pathetic world."

"Then will you please stop staring at me?

"Yes, oh mighty Megatron, sir. What should I stare at, instead of you?"

Megatron gritted his teeth. "Lugnut, _I really don't care_."

Sometimes, it was enough to make Megatron miss Starscream's constant back-stabbing and assassination attempts.

* * *

**10. Scissor Sisters - I Can't Decide**

Lockdown picked up the severed arm of the unfortunate Autobot, and smacked the hapless mech around the head with it.

"Hey," Lockdown said. "Stop hitting yourself. Haha."

The Autobot, who was tied securely to a gurney, was unable to do anything other than curse at Lockdown in several different languages. Lockdown grinned at him, then went to get his hacksaw so that he could really go to work.


End file.
